I am very glad that we have Chaos Computer Club in Germany. It's by far more than just a time and place where nerds meetup to do computer, they are already some kind of institution, they have a voice in politics and often requested for independent consulting. But "doing computer" is how it all started.
> the recurse center social rules foster collaboration and psychological safety, consider using them
> No well-actually’s
> No feigned surprise
> No backseat driving
> No subtle -isms
There seems to be something really magical about the Recurse Center social rules. Or maybe their admissions process. Or both. I did a batch a couple years ago and I was stunned at how fun and drama-free people are there. I've heard occasional stories of negative experiences but nowhere near what Id expect for a group of passionate intelligent creatives working at vastly different levels of expertise.
Anyway glad to see the RC rules propagating and love this idea. I'm inspired to try to start a computer club at my 5yo's school! *crossed-fingers
I would quite happily volunteer some of my time to help interested kids with computer programming. I recently looked around and none of my local school (here in the UK) seem to have after school programming clubs. I am a bit put off by all the organizational and safe guarding issues that would come with starting something.
Similar to computer clubs, I really liked doing coding days in various small communities in Tokyo (in Japanese they're called moku moku kai).
The Python minihackathon[0] group model was particularly great. You show up, write a line or two of what you're thinking of working on onto a whiteboard, and towards the end people go up and present what they worked on for a couple minutes.
It's usually "learning how to use this library" or something, but it's a great way to schedule some OSS work.
This is a bit different from a computer club, but if you have a space you can lock into and can get even 10 or so people together once every couple of weeks (or once a month), then it's a great way to be sure you _at least_ work on something 12 times a year.
I run a maker space in Saint Charles, Illinois. We have space to host these sort of things. If you live near here and (like me) are interested, please reach out. My contact details are easy to find.
Abimelex ·32 minutes ago
pkdpic ·10 hours ago
> No well-actually’s > No feigned surprise > No backseat driving > No subtle -isms
There seems to be something really magical about the Recurse Center social rules. Or maybe their admissions process. Or both. I did a batch a couple years ago and I was stunned at how fun and drama-free people are there. I've heard occasional stories of negative experiences but nowhere near what Id expect for a group of passionate intelligent creatives working at vastly different levels of expertise.
Anyway glad to see the RC rules propagating and love this idea. I'm inspired to try to start a computer club at my 5yo's school! *crossed-fingers
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hermitcrab ·6 hours ago
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rtpg ·11 hours ago
The Python minihackathon[0] group model was particularly great. You show up, write a line or two of what you're thinking of working on onto a whiteboard, and towards the end people go up and present what they worked on for a couple minutes.
It's usually "learning how to use this library" or something, but it's a great way to schedule some OSS work.
This is a bit different from a computer club, but if you have a space you can lock into and can get even 10 or so people together once every couple of weeks (or once a month), then it's a great way to be sure you _at least_ work on something 12 times a year.
[0]: https://pyhack.connpass.com/
rickcarlino ·11 hours ago
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